No. 16 Special

early 1916

O’Keeffe’s drawings reach Stieglitz

She mailed the charcoal drawings to her friend and former Teachers College classmate Anita Pollitzer, who took them to Stieglitz at his gallery 291 early in the year. He prized their purity and sincerity and said he would like to show them.

1916

Ten of her drawings shown at gallery 291

In April Stieglitz exhibited ten of her drawings at his gallery 291, which promoted avant-garde American and European artists and photographers.

1917

Exhibition of her work organised by Stieglitz

Stieglitz held an exhibition of her work, and O’Keeffe came to New York to see it. From that visit he began to photograph her — and went on doing so for many years, often in the nude.

1918

Stieglitz leaves his family for O’Keeffe

Within a month Stieglitz took the first of many nude photographs of her at his family’s apartment while his wife was away; his wife came home and gave him an ultimatum, and he left at once and moved in with O’Keeffe. The divorce, delayed by his first wife and her family, took six years — until the wedding in December 1924.

from 1918

Meets the modernists of the Stieglitz circle

In New York she came to know the early American modernists of Stieglitz’s circle: the painters Charles Demuth, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley and John Marin, and the photographers Paul Strand and Edward Steichen. The photography of Strand and of Stieglitz himself inspired her work.

1918

Moves to New York at Stieglitz’s invitation

Stieglitz invited her to live and work in New York, promising a quiet studio and to underwrite a year of painting; to accept she resigned from teaching at West Texas State. He discouraged her use of watercolour, which was associated with amateur women artists.